On my third brew day with the finally completed rig; all of the bugs are finally worked out and I can't be happier!

Looks good Scott. How's your rims working for you? I really am liking my new system but my efficiency took a dive from my 5 gallon system with a round cooler. I went from 81% down to 70%. I've also done 3 brews and will be doing another one in a few hours.

Looks good Scott. How's your rims working for you? I really am liking my new system but my efficiency took a dive from my 5 gallon system with a round cooler. I went from 81% down to 70%. I've also done 3 brews and will be doing another one in a few hours.

My efficiency took a hit too... I'm still fiddling with it but I think I'm circulating too fast and the grain bed is coning (i.e. forming a whirlpool cone) leaving a little a bit of grain that doesn't rinse as well.

I also think it is a switch from the 10 gallon round cooler and the 20 gallon stainless kettles. The kettles are so much wider that there is less wort above the grain bed. in my kettle 1 gallon amounts to just about 3/4" of clearance. With such a big setup this is amplified when only doing 5 gallon batches. 10 gallon batches work much better.

My last brew I added 1.5 gallons more water to the mash then Beersmith recommended to raise the water higher over the bed. While this left less for the sparge water (was a 10 gallon batch) I hit 84% efficiency.